No let-off from California fires
MORE than 200 fire engines and firefighting crews from around the country were being rushed to California yesterday to help battle infernos which have left at least 23 people dead and thousands homeless.
“This is a serious, critical, catastrophic event,” California fire chief Ken Pimlott said. “We’re not going to be out of the woods for a great number of days to come.”
Pimlott said that after a respite on Tuesday, winds kicked up again on Wednesday and the winds and dry conditions were hampering efforts to contain the blazes.
“We are still impacted by five years of drought,” the director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said.
“These fires were driven by the critically dry fuel bed,” he added. “We are literally looking at explosive vegetation.”
Pimlott said the death toll from the fires, among the deadliest ever in California, could be expected to go up further.
Thirteen of the deaths have occurred in Sonoma County, a wine-producing region which has been particularly hard-hit, while six people have Mendocino County.
There have been two deaths in Napa County and two in Yuba County.
Entire neighbourhoods in Santa Rosa, a city of 175 000 which is the county seat of Sonoma County, have been reduced to ashes.
Thousands of people have been left homeless and 25 000 people have evacuated their homes in Sonoma County alone, according to officials.
More than 3 500 homes and businesses have been destroyed including several wineries in Sonoma and Napa counties, the died in heart of the state’s wine production. Six hundred people have been reported missing in Sonoma County, but more than half of them have been located, Sheriff Robert Giordano said.
“There’s still 285 on our missing list that we’re looking for,” he said. Pimlott said firefighters were battling a total of 22 wildfires that have burned over 68 800ha and that reinforcements had been requested.
He said 170 fire engines had been ordered from the neighbouring states of Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington and another 154 engines from elsewhere around the country.
In addition, 60 firefighting crews from other states were on their way to California to provide assistance, he said.
He said 73 helicopters, 30 air tankers and nearly 8 000 firefighters were currently taking part in the effort to extinguish the blazes.
President Donald Trump has declared a major disaster in California, freeing up federal funding and resources to help fight the fires. And Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in eight counties.
Bob Nelson, 53, stopped in his black pickup truck at a police roadblock near Santa Rosa, said he fled his home on Sunday and returned on Tuesday.
“There was no damage,” he said. “But then we got evacuated again. We don’t know about our house now.”
Michael Desmond, 63, does know: his home was one of hundreds destroyed by the blaze in the Coffey Park neighbourhood of Santa Rosa.
“I feel violated; like a thief came in,” said Desmond, who sobbed as he surveyed the rubble of the house where he grew up. — AFP